


you are my warmth

by StylesStars



Category: Little Mix (Band), One Direction (Band), Zayn Malik (Musician)
Genre: Alpha Harry, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, F/F, F/M, M/M, Omega Louis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-08
Updated: 2017-04-08
Packaged: 2018-10-16 13:43:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10572504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StylesStars/pseuds/StylesStars
Summary: Determinately, Louis marches into his bedroom and sits at his desk, placing the bottle of wine on the surface as he opens the laptop and begins making himself a profile. He takes constant sips of wine as he creates his profile, ‘what the hell are you doing’ playing on a loop in his mind, yet he keeps going until he needs to create a username. His first instinct is to make it louist91, which is the username for all of his social media, but he hesitates. He enters lewist91 instead.He’s figuring out the website and even messages a few alphas that catch his eye when Harry walks into the flat, yelling his usual ‘Honey, I’m home’. Louis panics for a moment, unsure if he wants Harry to know what he’s doing. Right before the alpha walks into his room, he slams his laptop shut.





	

**Author's Note:**

> a one shot for now to see how it does, if it goes well i'll make it a chaptered story, let me know

Despite its title, Disney Night is not one of the happiest nights on Earth. So far this month, Louis and Harry have held Disney Night three times; a new record. Disney Night consists of them cuddling on their couch together, preferably underneath their Bambi blanket, and share a tub of ice cream. Tonight’s chosen film is Aladdin.

The current Disney Night started when Harry was laying on their couch, mindlessly watching The Office. He had been all evening, dutifully waiting for his flatmate’s arrival. It was a Friday night and the alpha’s friends had invited him to go with them to a club, yet he had immediately declined.

When he heard the door open, he raised his head and focused his eyes on his best mate. Louis’ face was slightly tilted to the ground and his shoulders were hunched as he walked into their flat. He closed the door then turned to face Harry, who already knew the verdict but raised his eyebrows in question anyways. Louis shook his head sadly and directed his gaze to the floor again, toeing off his shoes.

Harry stood and went to grab the blanket and ice cream flavour of the night: Chunky Monkey. He was disappointed that this routine was becoming so familiar for him, because Disney Nights only happened after coming home from a failed date. Harry didn’t know what happened this time yet it still broke his heart. This was the third bad night that his best friend had experienced in this month. 

Louis is feeling better now though, three quarters of the way through the ice cream and singing all of the songs under his breath, knowing them by heart. The omega had grown up watching Disney films and even after moving to London for university, his love for them has never died. Harry had never minded them, so on his first night in the flat he watched The Lion King with his new flatmate. They were strangers at the time, the only communication they ever had previous to their meeting were a few emails concerning their genders. Unfamiliar alphas and omegas rarely live together as it could result unsafely but neither of them wanted to give up their shared offer for the flat. Now, a year and a half later, they haven’t had any issues and are inseparable.

Their friends say that their friendship is annoying. According to them, Louis and Harry are just like the kind of couple that never leaves the honeymoon phase of their relationship. They know each other as if they have been best friends for their whole lives and are incredibly attuned to each other’s emotions. They get into arguments but they rarely last long. If they do it’s only because Louis is in a petty, unforgiving mood.

At the end of the movie, Louis knows what’s about to come. It’s the last piece of the Disney Night routine. He doesn’t look forward to it.

“So,” Harry says as the movie’s credits begin. Louis smiles, he hasn’t heard the alpha’s voice since before leaving for the date. He missed it. “What happened?”

Louis furrows his eyebrows, “What are you talking about?”

“Lou,” Harry huffs, “you know what I’m talking about. Your date.”

“It was fine,” the omega shrugs. It’s an obvious lie; Disney Night only happens after bad dates, but Louis does not want to talk. He never does, it’s best to just forget about it. Harry disagrees with that, constantly prodding at Louis until he relents and confesses.

Harry shifts away from the omega. Louis whines and looks at his best friend sadly. “Tell me what happened, then I’ll come back,” Harry tempts him. 

After a few seconds of contemplation, Louis responds with a counteroffer, “Come back first and I’ll tell you.”

Harry raises his eyebrows and after a moment shuffles towards his best friend again, allowing Louis to lean back into him. His arms wrap around Louis’ waist, “So how did it go?”

“There isn’t much to say,” Louis sighs, “I waited outside for a half hour until he finally came to pick me up. When I asked why he was late, he just said that he got caught up with something and didn’t think to let me know. He took me to that Asian place on Oxford and it was nice and all but I don’t know, I guess I wasn’t very into it.”

What he didn’t tell Harry was how his date wouldn’t get off his phone the whole night, and how he treated Louis poorly. It didn’t bother him that much, he has thick skin, but he knew that Harry would become the protective alpha if he found out and Louis is too tired to handle that right now. He just wants to put this date behind him like all the other ones.

Harry never used to be protective of him, he used to trust that Louis was doing fine and would tell him if something was wrong. Louis has never liked to talk about what’s not going great in his life, he tucks it away and pretends that it doesn’t exist. It’s what he has done for his whole life. Louis had never talked Harry about this because he had once told his mom when he was fourteen and ended up being sent to a counsellor since his mom was convinced that he needed to talk about all of his issues. He knew that it was also because he had just presented as an omega and she was scared that something was wrong with him for not being emotionally vulnerable. The whole experience was a load of bullshit. After that Louis decided that it was best to let everyone believe that he was a carefree guy with zero problems, it was easier that way. But one day he slipped. Nick, his boyfriend of eleven months was going to take him to Brighton during the weekend before his birthday. Despite how cold the December weather would be, Louis was elated, talking to Harry about everything he wanted to do in the short amount of time that he would be gone. Harry never liked Nick and Louis knew that, but Harry put up with him for his best friend’s sake and Louis was incredibly grateful. The morning that Nick was supposed to pick him up, Louis sent him a text asking if he was excited and ready to start driving. He got a response from the alpha seven minutes later: a photo of him kissing a gorgeous, raven-haired girl with the caption ‘she's a real omega, fuck u fag’. For the first time since meeting, Louis cried in front of Harry. It wasn’t the first time Nick had sent something like that to him either, and in his moment of weakness he told Harry; he told him about how throughout his whole relationship, Nick would send him photos and messages to put him down, only for the alpha to beg for his forgiveness a few days later, Louis always giving it. Harry was livid. That night, he broke Nick’s nose.

Since then, Harry has been aware of what Louis ‘fines’ and ‘okays’ actually meant, the omega can’t even try to hide things from him anymore. It’s nice he supposes, to have someone who cares about you that much, but it also gets excessive, because when Harry hears that someone has treated Louis poorly, he steps in and defends Louis as if the omega can’t do it for himself.

Louis feels Harry’s arms tighten around him, “I’m sorry that happened to you, Lou. He’s obviously a wanker. At least you know that now instead of going on more dates and figuring it out later.”

Sighing, Louis nods, “I know, it still sucks though.”

“Of course it does,” Harry says, “Don’t worry, you’ll find your mate soon.”

“Yeah,” Louis stands up and stretches, then wraps his arms around his stomach carefully, “I think I’m gonna go to bed now.”

“Do you want to sleep in my bed tonight?” His best friend offers hopefully. It’s not uncommon for them to share a bed, it’s comforting.

Louis thinks about it, lowering his eyes to the carpet beneath him, but ends up shaking his head, “Nah, I think I’ll pass tonight.”

He doesn’t see Harry’s reaction, keeping his gaze to the ground, but he hears the alpha speak, “Oh… yeah, okay. Goodnight then, Lou.”

“Goodnight,” Louis responds, then turns around and heads for his room. 

He takes his clothes off in the dark then slides beneath his blankets. What’s wrong with him? Why are all his dates failing? Is it because of how he looks? Louis frowns. He hates this, feeling so insecure. Feeling so… omega. He never used to feel this way before Nick. Then, if he had a bad date he would just brush it off and move on. Now whenever a date goes poorly, he automatically tries to figure out why, what the thing is that was so terribly wrong with him that made his date treat him however they did. Sometimes it isn’t him though, it’s just lack of compatibility, but more often he’s realizing that he’s just a bad omega.

***

Louis scrunches his nose in fake disgust, turning to Jesy and loudly pretending to gag, “Get a room!”  
The beta laughs and bumps her shoulder into his, “Don’t you just love third and fourth wheeling them?”

Rolling her eyes, Perrie breaks her kiss with Jade, who is giggling, “Oi, you two, shut it!”

Ignoring her request, Louis lays his head on Jesy’s lap. All four of them are tangled on top of her bed, textbooks and bags from today’s classes thrown into the corner of the room. Since she lives on her own, Jesy’s flat is the preferred location for their weekly ‘Fuck School Soiree’ every Wednesday, which consists of them ignoring all homework, papers, or projects that they should be doing in favour of talking and drinking wine from the bottle. 

Louis furrows his eyebrows, “I wonder out of the two of us, who the third wheel is and who the fourth wheel is. What do you think, Jesy?”

Jesy takes a sip from the bottle before talking, “Well I think that-”

“This is both of your own faults,” Jade cuts in, the omega picking at her nails.

Propping himself up on his elbows, Louis looks up at Jesy before turning back to the cuddling couple and raising his eyebrows, “How is Jesy and I third and fourth wheeling you two our faults?”

Jade rolls her eyes, “If you were a couple, we would just be having double dates all the time.”

“Ew, vagina.”

Scoffing, Jesy passes the bottle to Perrie before looking down at Louis, “You’d be lucky to even get a glimpse at my vagina, thank you very much.”

“I’ve seen more than just a glimpse with the amount of nudity that you allow in your household!” Louis argues, glaring at the three girls surrounding him. 

All of them ignore his comment, opting to continue talking about the beta that Jesy has a crush on, Leigh. He decides to tune out of their conversation as this is not the first time it has happened and definitely won’t be the last, going on his phone and scrolling through Instagram. He lingers on a photo that Harry has recently posted: a rose with wilted petals tucked into his long, messy hair.

“Honestly, Louis,” Jesy’s voice pulls him from the photo to look up at her, “why don’t you just ask him out?”

Louis laughs, “No way, he’s my best friend, that’s it. I could never date him.”

Frowning, Perrie puts her hand on his knee, “Whether you admit it to us or not, we know that you’re lonely. We’re all aware that you’ve met some… shitty guys but maybe the bar isn’t the best place to look!”

“Why don’t you try online dating?” Jade suggests.

Louis shrugs. Of course he’s considered online dating. It’s been six months since Nick and him split, he’s over him and ready for a boyfriend again. The girls are right, the university bar really isn’t the best place to find guys but he’s been too scared to go anywhere else or try other ways of finding someone. He’s scared of putting himself out there again when it’s so easy for him to get hurt. 

Standing up, he takes the half empty bottle from Perrie before the alpha can stop him and grabs his bag, saying his goodbyes to the disappointed girls. On the walk home, Louis allows the warm June air to relax him. Jesy’s flat is about a twenty minute walk from his, and during that time he decides that he’s going to seriously try dating again, avoiding the wankers and allowing himself to maybe fall in love. Whatever happens will happen.

The flat is empty when he gets home, Harry still on his shift at the bakery. Louis doesn’t understand how Harry actually enjoys baking, whenever he tries he just gets pissed off and ends up throwing everything out.

Determinately, Louis marches into his bedroom and sits at his desk, placing the bottle of wine on the surface as he opens the laptop and begins making himself a profile. He takes constant sips of wine as he creates his profile, ‘what the hell are you doing’ playing on a loop in his mind, yet he keeps going until he needs to create a username. His first instinct is to make it louist91, which is the username for all of his social media, but he hesitates. He enters lewist91 instead.

He’s figuring out the website and even messages a few alphas that catch his eye when Harry walks into the flat, yelling his usual ‘Honey, I’m home’. Louis panics for a moment, unsure if he wants Harry to know what he’s doing. Right before the alpha walks into his room, he slams his laptop shut.

“Hey Lou,” he smiles, leaning on the doorway, “What’re you up to?”

The omega looks up at Harry, “Sitting at my desk with a bottle of wine, why do you ask?”

His flatmate opens his mouth for a moment, then shakes his head and walks out of the doorway.

 

***

Harry is sitting in the quietest corner of the coffeeshop, resting his feet on the seat of the chair across from him and pinching his bottom lip between his fingers as he reads. His coffee is steaming in front of him and muffin sitting on top of its bag, untouched. He’s excited to eventually take over the family company, but studying for a degree in business is hard. 

The chair across from him is abruptly pulled out, dropping his feet to the floor. When he looks up to see the guilty party, his closest friend in his classes is already sitting across from him. “Come out with us tonight.” The alpha demands.

Harry blinks. “What?”

Rolling his eyes, Liam picks up Harry’s muffin and puts a piece of it in his mouth, “Come out with Cara and I tonight, your alpha crew. You gotta since you ditched us last Friday.”

The curly haired alpha puts his book down and crosses his arms, “Louis went on a date that night.”

“So? That doesn’t mean that you need to neglect your own social life. You don’t have to stay at the flat whenever Louis goes on a date,” the alpha gives Harry a pointed look, “It’ll be fun.”

Harry purses his lips. He does have to be home whenever Louis goes on a date. What if something happens? Louis is his best friend and Harry would never forgive himself if he allowed Louis to get hurt, physically or emotionally. But Louis doesn’t have any plans for tonight... 

“Fine, I’ll come,” Harry agrees, “What are the plans?”

Liam smiles and eats another chunk of muffin, “Just the club down the road.”

“Sounds good, mate,” Harry says.

 

***

Harry feels guilty. When he left the flat, Louis was curled up underneath the alpha’s duvet on the couch, claiming that it’s warmer than his own when questioned, and watching television. And here Harry is, at a club, slightly buzzed from the drink that Cara bought him, talking to an omega. There’s no reason to feel guilty, but Harry just can’t get the thought of a tiny Louis underneath a massive blanket out of his mind, feeling as if he is betraying his best friend.

He talks a while longer to the omega, politely declining her offer to dance, and is now searching for Liam and Cara. The last that he saw them was when they directed the omega towards him with a hinting wink in his direction. He searches from the perimeter of the dance floor for a bit until he finally spots them at a table with some other girls. He quickly walks over to them and sits down, smiling at everyone else.

“You girls are Louis’ friends from uni, aren’t you?” He asks, looking at a blonde alpha and brunette omega, “Drama?”

“Yep,” the blonde nods, “I’m Perrie and this is my omega, Jade.”

Harry smiles at them. “Harry.”

“Oh, we know who you are.”

The alpha furrows his eyebrows but doesn’t question the comment, instead turning to talk to Cara and Liam. “Why did you send that omega my way?”

Liam shrugs and takes a sip of his beer. Cara winks at him.

The five of them talk and drink together, having a good time, but Harry is continuously distracted by the image of Louis in his mind. It’s starting to get frustrating because it’s making him begin to wonder what Louis is doing now. Probably watching a Disney film.

Except he is proven wrong when he glances to the dance floor, finding the exact omega that has been clouding his thoughts grinding on some buff alpha wearing a ridiculous snapback. Harry narrows his eyes. Louis moves with the alpha, whose hands are gripping his hips tightly, rocking their bodies together. The omega has a drink in his hand, which sloshes up to the rim of the glass with every movement he makes.

Harry must not be subtle with his interest though, because Perrie looks over at Louis and cheers, “Finally! Louis really needs to be shagged.”

He forces himself to look away. Louis is an adult and can make decisions for himself. Louis doesn’t need Harry for protection. Louis is fine.

The curly haired alpha turns to look at Perrie with more intensity than intended, “Why is he here?”

Perrie rolls her eyes, “He’s here to have fun! All he does lately is mope around in your flat and watch films, it’s really quite pathetic”

Harry stays silent, crossing his arms and watching Louis out of the corner of his eye. At one point Cara tells him to stop brooding, but Harry pays no attention. He is not brooding.

Once the girls have bid their farewells, Harry makes an effort to talk to his friends. It works for a while until his eyes drift to the Louis again. Him and the alpha are in the same spot and dancing in the same way as before, the only difference now is the alpha’s obvious boner. A boner. This guy is so indecent, would probably end up treating Louis terribly in bed, only caring about getting himself off and having no regard to the omega’s pleasure. Unlike this guy, Harry knows how to treat an omega properly.

It’s a frustrating scene to witness. His best friend is not going to have sex tonight, Harry decides, not going to have that pathetic knot inside him when he could be treated so much better by another alpha. He slides along the seat of the booth to take Louie from that wanker and bring him home. Liam grabs his arm.

“What?” Harry asks impatiently, continuing to monitor the dancing pair.

Liam looks concerned. “Harry you need to chill out, mate. I get that you’re upset ‘cause you like Louis but-”

“I don’t like Louis,” Harry says, “he’s my best friend.”

The alpha rolls his eyes, “Okay, fine. I get that you’re upset because your friend is with another alpha, but it’s not your place to intervene. Maybe this shows that you’re ready to find an omega for yourself…”

Harry is about to decline with the same answer that he has used for two years, but Cara is quicker than he is, “Just hear us out.”

With one last fleeting look at Louis, who still hasn’t moved from his spot, Harry relents and faces the two alphas.

Cara smiles and glances at Liam, “Harry, you’re such an amazing alpha, we can see that with the way you act around Lou. Any omega would be so lucky to have you as their alpha. And we know that you want to focus on school like you always tell us, but as your friends, we truly think that finding an omega will be good for you.”

Sighing, Harry runs a hand through his hair. The thought of having an omega to love and care for has always been a nice thought, but whenever he has tried in the past something would go wrong. But maybe his friends are right.

The alpha nods his head slowly, “You’re right, but,” he glances to the dance floor, “I need to take care of Lou.”

Liam sighs and rubs his hand over his face. “Louis doesn’t need you to take care of him.”

“Yes he does-”

“No, he doesn’t,” Cara cuts in with hard eyes, “You’ve taken it upon yourself to be Louis’ ‘alpha’, but unless you actually want to be his alpha, you need to move on. It’s not fair to him or yourself, so make up your mind.”

His chest deflates.

“Until you decide, try a dating app. You’ll talk to lots of omegas on there who will help you realise whether or not Louis is your mate,” Liam takes Harry’s phone from the tabletop and begins to make the alpha a profile with Cara’s help.

They hand him the phone back awhile later. Harry glances at his profile: HEStyles. His hand falls to his lap and he sighs. He doesn’t know how he feels about Louis. He is his best friend, nothing more, but the thought of treating the omega the same as he treats Liam and Cara doesn’t feel right.

He glances to the dance floor. His omega has left.

***

Louis knows that this isn’t right. Sobering as time passes and becoming familiar with the feel of cool brick against his back. It’s rough, leaving scrapes on his skin. His shirt is in a wad beside his feet on the cement. When did that happen? The alpha’s snapback covers where his lips are biting and licking along Louis’ shoulder. It feels wrong and makes him think of the few times that Harry has playfully done the same to him. He likes it better when Harry does it.

He huffs and gently pushes the alpha’s shoulder away. “Hey,” he says, pushing again, “can you stop?”

The alpha looks up at him. “Is everything alright?”

Louis bites his lip and flits his eyes to the ground, “No I uh… I’m just not in the mood anymore. Sorry.”

The alpha steps back and hands Louis his shirt from the ground. The omega is offered a ride home but he declines.

Louis begins walking. He remembers being at home earlier in the evening, wrapped in Harry’s duvet. It smelled so strongly of the alpha, relaxing him and making him feel content. He was watching The Lion King, his favourite film, and Perrie and Jade arrived at his flat demanding that he go out with them. The rest after that consists of muddled images. He thinks that he might have seen Harry at some point in the night, but he’s unsure.

By the time that he gets to his flat he’s not tired. The telly is still on and Harry’s duvet strewn across the couch. Louis turns the screen off and after a moment’s hesitation, takes the duvet and wraps it around himself. It instantly warms his skin. He relaxes as he inhales the alpha’s scent. The omega walks into his room and grabs his laptop, bringing it to bed with him. He logs onto the dating site out of lack of anything else to do and checks his messages. He declines a few sketchy alphas until coming across one that catches his eye. The message is not anything special, a simple: ‘hi, how are you?’.

Louis decides to respond, saying that his day was long yet good and asking about the alpha’s. He looks at the profile, zayn. It says that he’s an alpha who is apparently studying literature at the same university as him. 

zayn: same here, lots of classes but i’m happy that it’s the weekend now :))

Louis smiles, he feels the same way. They talk for a while until ‘zayn’ bids his goodnight. The omega closes his laptop with a smile, because this alpha seems cool. He’s happy that the girls suggested him trying this; without them, he probably wouldn’t have ever dared to. He has already met someone that he could see himself going out with. It’s nice.

 

***

When Harry gets home, he is tired and his head hurts. He left the club once he saw that Louis had left and walked the long way home. Without knowing it, the omega had made the decision for Harry. Louis leaving the club with the alpha proved to Harry that he didn’t see a future with the alpha like Harry subconsciously had imagined it with him. Halfway through the walk he shut off his phone, annoyed with the omegas sending him messages on the new app. He wasn’t in the mood.

Despite the rejection weighing him down, he checks Louis’ room. The alpha had been worrying for the past hour about the omega. He breaths a sigh of relief when he finds Louis snuggled in bed, fast asleep and wrapped in the alpha’s duvet as if he never went to the club that night. Harry knows that the omega has already made up his mind about him, yet he can’t resist lazily stripping his clothes and joining him in bed. 

Harry noses along the omega’s neck, which is cloaked in the dominating scent of another alpha. He growls lowly, kissing the expanse of the skin to replace the scent with his own. This is the last time, the alpha promises himself.

***

Louis really likes Zayn. They’ve been talking for a few while now and it has been going really well. Harry hasn’t been at the flat much, claiming that he’s been too busy with coursework and has ended up stayed with Liam or Cara most nights, so Louis and Zayn have even been able to Skype a handful of times due to the new privacy.

It’s kind of strange, the way that Harry has been acting. Normally, he would rarely leave Louis at the flat alone. They would cuddle and talk every night and Harry would rarely let Louis out of his sight. Over the past month though all of that has changed. Louis has been seeing the alpha once every few days when he would come to the flat to do his laundry before quickly leaving again. The omega has whined and whimpered for Harry to stay with him, but that only makes the alpha rush to leave sooner. 

Recently, it hasn’t even been Harry coming to the flat. Louis would follow Liam around the flat and ask him about Harry; why the alpha was avoiding him and what he did wrong. It would always make Liam’s eyes soften and explain that Harry is only busy and that the omega has done nothing wrong. It’s barely reassuring.

Louis has been forgetting to take care of himself. Harry would always do it for him so now that the alpha is absent, it hasn’t been happening. He occasionally eats and barely leaves the flat. Between courses he curls up on the couch, which still holds faintest scent of Harry, though it has faded. The omega has began to take articles of Harry’s dirty laundry with him, forming a barrier around himself on the couch which grows every day.

It has been six days since anyone has come to the flat. Louis has taken every article of Harry’s clothing from his bedroom, dirty and clean, along with his sheets and duvet which is now permanently wrapped around himself, only leaving his body when he goes to classes. 

Louis has yet to leave the couch all weekend, sleeping surrounded by Harry’s scent for the past two nights. His eyes hurt from staring at his phone but he still holds onto it tightly, relying on Zayn’s texts to supply him with the comfort and reassurance that he has lost. The alpha isn’t aware that Louis keeps himself surrounded himself with his best friend’s belongings or that Louis is beginning to shut down. The omega isn’t aware of it either; he’s only aware that Harry has left him.

***

“I can’t do it anymore,” Liam firmly states.

“Liam please-”

“No Harry, I’m done with this. Do you know how much it breaks my heart to walk into your flat to see the tiny amount of hope left in Louis drain out of him when he realizes that I’m not you? He thinks that this is all his fault. I know that you’re trying to do the right thing but you’re doing it all wrong.”

Harry’s head falls into his hands. The couch underneath him is hard and leaves him uncomfortable when he wakes up in the morning, but sleeping on it is better than facing what he left at his flat. 

He thought it would be so much easier than this. Stay with Liam for a while and come back when Louis and himself are less affectionate with each other. He never realized that it would affect the omega so much.

Looking up to Cara, Harry pleads for her to go to his flat to get his clothes.

She sighs, “But only if you come and stay in the car.”

Harry nods rapidly, thankful that she’s helping him.

“And Kendall is coming,” she adds.

Kendall is Cara’s alpha mate. An alpha mating another alpha is extremely rare because it isn’t natural. Female alphas have penises and knots just like male alphas, and alphas aren’t built to take knots like omegas are. An alpha also can not leave a mating bite on another alpha. Kendall and Cara instead have tattoos of their mate’s name on their collar bones as their unofficial mating marks.

Harry sits in the back seat with Cara and Kendall up front. He’s silent throughout the whole drive. He hasn’t been back at his flat for two weeks now and he’s grateful that he doesn’t have to go inside. The alpha could not bear to see Louis in the state that Liam has been describing to him.

They pull up to the flat and Harry looks up to the third floor window which he knows looks into their kitchen. He doesn’t know what he expects but finds himself disappointed when he sees that the curtains are closed.

Cara turns around in her seat. “So you just want clothes?”

Harry nods, “Take the clothes left over in my drawers.”

With a thumbs up, Cara and Kendall leave the car and walk into the building. Harry wonders how Louis is doing. He misses the omega more than anything and regrets the choice that he made, but it can’t be changed now, he’s already gone too far. 

His phone buzzes in his hand and after seeing Cara’s name, he answers, “Is everything alright?”

“I can’t get your clothes.”

Harry furrows his eyebrows, “Why not?”

“Because Louis has used them to make himself a nest on the couch.”

“A wha-,” the alpha’s eyes widen, “He’s nesting?”

Cara huffs, “Yes he’s nesting, and he’s also completely out of it. He didn’t look up when Ken and I walked in and he didn’t respond when we tried to talk to him. He was glued to his phone, texting someone named Zayn. We’ve gotten him to give us his phone but he won’t leave his nest.”

The alpha runs a hand through his hair. Why is his Louis like this right now? The omega should be happy without being weighed down by Harry.

“Oh,” Cara says, “Okay, so he just let Ken into the nest with him.”

Harry waits patiently as Cara and Kendall talk to each other.

“Ken says that he’s thin Harry, tummy gone and everything. She asked him the last time that he ate and he said that he didn’t know. Harry this really isn’t good. I don’t think-”

The alpha gets out of the car, “I’ll be there in two minutes.” He ends the call.

Harry strides up the stairs with thoughts of his bubbly, little Louis being miserable haunting his mind. He shouldn’t have done this, shouldn’t have gone this far. What the fuck was he thinking?

He opens the door to his flat and immediately has to bite back a growl. Kendall and Cara are curled up with Louis between them. Two alphas cuddling with his omega. He takes a deep breath and walks to the couch.

Louis’ face is tucked in Kendall’s neck, obviously scenting her while the alphas pet his hair and rub his back. Cara glares at him when she takes in his appearance, threatening body language and angry eyes.

The alpha understands and tries to relax. Louis is in such a fragile state that sensing an angry alpha could affect him negatively. Cara nods when he has calmed down and leans in to whisper into the omega’s ear.

Harry’s first time seeing Louis’ face for weeks is heartbreaking. His cheeks are red and tear stained, eyes wide and dull. The omega whimpers when he sees Harry and begins crying again. 

The alpha can’t control himself; bending down and picking up his best friend, pushing the omega’s head gently towards his neck. He feels Louis bury his face into the skin and scent him deeply. Harry holds him tight.

“I’ll never leave again,” he whispers the promise into his omega’s ear, “never again.


End file.
